A Laotian woman embroiders while drying mushrooms on the road in Xieng Khouang province, north of Vientiane April 3, 2008. After decades of isolation, Communist-led Laos is enjoying an economic boom fuelled by surging demand for its most plentiful commodity - land. One of the poorest countries in Asia, with many of its citizens living on around $1 per day, Laos has gradually opened its tiny economy to foreign investment since the Pathet Lao Communists adopted market reforms in the mid-1980s. Picture taken April 3, 2008. To match feature AGFLATION/LAOS REUTERS/Nguyen Van Vinh (LAOS)
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